Summary:
Cleveland County School District is home to a single high school, Rison High School, which serves 314 students in grades 7 through 12 in a rural Arkansas community where over 63% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Rison High School is a school of striking contrasts. It excels in STEM subjects, with 2025-2026 proficiency rates in Science (58%) and Mathematics (51.7%) that significantly outpace state averages. The school is particularly strong in Geometry, where 9th graders achieved a 70% proficiency rate, nearly 11 points above the state. However, the school struggles in English Language Arts (ELA) and Reading, where its "All Grades" proficiency rates of 34.8% and 37.8% fall below state averages. This weakness is most acute in 9th grade, where ELA proficiency is just 23.2% compared to the state's 38%. The school maintains a very low student-teacher ratio of 9.4:1 and spends $13,448 per student, yet these resources have not translated into balanced academic success. The school's state ranking has dropped dramatically from the 83rd percentile in 2023-2024 to the 43rd percentile in 2025-2026, likely driven by the decline in literacy scores.
Despite these academic challenges, Rison High School demonstrates strong student retention and support. It boasts a high graduation rate of 94.6% and a very low dropout rate of just 0.9%. The school's ability to keep students engaged and on track to graduate, even while serving a predominantly low-income community, is a notable strength. The key takeaway for parents is that while the school is a clear leader in STEM education and excels at keeping students in school, a targeted and urgent intervention is needed to improve literacy skills, especially for 9th graders, to reverse the recent decline in overall performance.
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